My friend thinks 4G is not that big a deal...

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FerraraZ

Gawd
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Feb 4, 2010
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He stated that there is not one app that could use it and questioned me to show him one app thats held back by using 3G data. I'm inclined to think he's just telling himself this as an Apple fanboy because the iPhone 5 isnt coming out this summer and falling behind with 4G standard.

Is he right in that "phones havent caught up to the need for high speed internet"?
 
RE 4G: My first thought is this: which carrier's 4G?? If you are referring to AT&T, last I heard (which admittedly could be VERY old news) AT&T was simply renaming it's network from 3G to 4G to compete with others.

http://www.newser.com/story/109146/att-renames-its-3g-network-a-4g-network.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704405704576063912912052074.html?mod=ITP_marketplace_0


As to your question about phones catching up to the need for high speed internet, I think there are still those who use old school mobile phones (flip phones, sliders, candybars) that are NOT going to use data or watch movies or play music. I know more than two dozen people that prefer to stay away from smart phones due to extra fees. Others, like most on [H], that use smart phones, are going to prefer high speed internet. Who wants to wait on data to load? That delay went out when dial up died it's slow death.
 
all the wifi tether apps.. would use the 4g.. if it's in your area.. is your friend misinterpreting 4g or something? 4g noticeably is the data speed standard. so for example it'd be like sort of comparing dsl internet to cable internet in a sense.
 
4g gets faster download and upload then my $60/mo cable internet(12mb down advertised(0-2mb down most of the time(Thanks Mediacom!))). WiFi tether ftw!
 
It's all still worthless as the all the major carriers will be cracking down on wifi tethering and the caps and price will get worse. Till then I could give a rats ass about 4g and LTE
 
Just one app? How about "speed test"?

Lol, srsly though.. any video/audio streaming app makes good use of it. Netflix is agood example or Youtube HQ vids.

But AT&T/T-Mobile 4G is lol worthy compared to Sprint and Verizons. I'm still happy with 3G speeds on my Droid though. It's fast enough for everything I do on it. But faster is always better :).
 
Did someone say "Speed Test" ? :D

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Epic 4G on Sprint.

When the wifi is scarce, its kind of a big deal.

I'm actually kind of pissed at the speeds right now. When I first got the phone back in December, I was hitting low 7's for 4G, which is as fast as my Comcast is right NOW
 
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Yea sure, basic apps, email, messengers, even browsing most sites like H forums, don't take that much advantage of 4G or wifi, but try downloading video or pdf attachment, go to ign.com, watch embedded flash video there, or youtube HQ, which I leave set on at default, 3G makes those tasks embarrassing. Of course depends on your area's 3G speed, some areas I can pull 1.3 down and can get by using only that, but at work, forget about it, .4 at best, 4G available there and youtube buffering nearly non existent on 4G. Yes we need more speed.

Lastly if they can improve efficiency of 4G radios we could see better battery life as it will only take split seconds to sync your data and apps instead of over a minute if I sync all my accounts at once, and that's with no attachments.

Evo pulls 5 to 8Mb at work on 4G, about 3Mb at home, and I've hit over 10Mb I few spots and it only should get better without us giving cell providers any reason to hold back development cuz someone thinks there's no app for it.
 
Vengance_01 said:
It's all still worthless as the all the major carriers will be cracking down on wifi tethering and the caps and price will get worse. Till then I could give a rats ass about 4g and LTE
Click to expand...

This pretty much sums it up. What's the point of 4g if you are going to cap it in a couple days.
 
Honestly my phone loads as fast off tmo 3g as it does off wifi. The bottle neck is the phone, and i have a fast phone (mt4g). And to the comment about the renamed 3g to 4g. Both tmo and att did it. But look for the speed test results from when someone is actually using it. Hspa+ is faster then lte and will be for a while. Lte will eventually be much faster, but lte is designed for the long term.
Posted via Mobile Device

Oh and yeah tethering us the only time you will really gain anything as of right now.
 
Vengance_01 said:
It's all still worthless as the all the major carriers will be cracking down on wifi tethering and the caps and price will get worse. Till then I could give a rats ass about 4g and LTE
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So you're pissed that they may be cracking down (AT&T already is but nobody else has hinted at it) on your TOS violating habits? Go, go misguided sense of entitlement! :rolleyes:

What caps are you referring to? Sprint and Verizon are still unlimited unless you pay for tethering in which case you're capped. Yes, part of that is a money grab (Verizon wants you to use FiOS at home) but don't forget that part of the reason for that cap is so you don't have people forgoing a cable or FiOS connection at home and eating up 200+GB of data per month on torrents, movie downloads, or gaming. In turn that usage hurts the rest of us paying customers who don't break the TOS on a daily basis.

A smartphone is a device to allow you to stay connected when you're not near your desktop. It's not a device that freely lets you use your desktop to download torrents (which are probably illegal to begin with) and play WoW all at the same time.

munkle said:
This pretty much sums it up. What's the point of 4g if you are going to cap it in a couple days.
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Who is going to cap what? Sprint and Verizon are both still unlimited unless you pay for tethering. They have never said they won't have unlimited in the future. Verizon we know is going tiered in the future but again we know nothing about it and it isn't in their best interests to get rid of unlimited all together. Is it possible you have to pay a tad more for unlimited? Sure but if it's reasonable who cares? I don't. Unlimited 4G LTE for $50 would still be a sure thing for me (although I'm already grandfathered in at $30 thanks to Thunderbolt :) ).

You just can't beat this speed. Loading up new ROM's on my old Droid use to take close to an hour (if I wasn't on WiFi) on my old Droid because 3G was "slow" when downloading all my apps. Don't get me wrong 3G was more then fast enough, but my TBolt downloads every app in about 3 minutes. Once you go 4G you can never go back. ;)
 
Vermillion said:
So you're pissed that they may be cracking down (AT&T already is but nobody else has hinted at it) on your TOS violating habits? Go, go misguided sense of entitlement! :rolleyes:

What caps are you referring to? Sprint and Verizon are still unlimited unless you pay for tethering in which case you're capped. Yes, part of that is a money grab (Verizon wants you to use FiOS at home) but don't forget that part of the reason for that cap is so you don't have people forgoing a cable or FiOS connection at home and eating up 200+GB of data per month on torrents, movie downloads, or gaming. In turn that usage hurts the rest of us paying customers who don't break the TOS on a daily basis.

A smartphone is a device to allow you to stay connected when you're not near your desktop. It's not a device that freely lets you use your desktop to download torrents (which are probably illegal to begin with) and play WoW all at the same time.



Who is going to cap what? Sprint and Verizon are both still unlimited unless you pay for tethering. They have never said they won't have unlimited in the future. Verizon we know is going tiered in the future but again we know nothing about it and it isn't in their best interests to get rid of unlimited all together. Is it possible you have to pay a tad more for unlimited? Sure but if it's reasonable who cares? I don't. Unlimited 4G LTE for $50 would still be a sure thing for me (although I'm already grandfathered in at $30 thanks to Thunderbolt :) ).

You just can't beat this speed. Loading up new ROM's on my old Droid use to take close to an hour (if I wasn't on WiFi) on my old Droid because 3G was "slow" when downloading all my apps. Don't get me wrong 3G was more then fast enough, but my TBolt downloads every app in about 3 minutes. Once you go 4G you can never go back. ;)
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Isn't it just the 3g that isn't capped on verizon and the 4g is capped? Sprint is unlimited but thier service isn't that great.

According to this 4g is capped at 5gb/10gb depending on plan for pc's. It's listed as "unlimited" on smartphones. I chatted with a verizon person to find out more about it.
Please hold for a Verizon Wireless sales representative to assist you with your order. Thank you for your patience.

You are now chatting with 'Shalonda'

Shalonda: Hello. Thank you for visiting our chat service. May I help you with your order today?

You: hello I was wondering if I get a htc thunderbolt is there a data limit or a size limit that data will get throttled at

Shalonda: I will be more than happy to assist you with information no data. No, it is $29.99 unlimited e-mail and web!

You: So if you tether the phone there is no 5gb limit?

Shalonda: Not until May 15th after that date there will be a limit but we do not have that information right now. Currently, it is unlimited.

You: after may 15th all will have a limit or just tethering?

Shalonda: The tethering/mobile hotspot.

You: ok thank you.
Click to expand...

So who knows after may 15 they may even throttle smartphones but just not charge you per gb after. So after that date sprint may be the only carrier to not cap/throttle 4g.
 
munkle said:
Isn't it just the 3g that isn't capped on verizon and the 4g is capped? Sprint is unlimited but thier service isn't that great.

According to this 4g is capped at 5gb/10gb depending on plan for pc's. It's listed as "unlimited" on smartphones. I chatted with a verizon person to find out more about it.


So who knows after may 15 they may even throttle smartphones but just not charge you per gb after. So after that date sprint would be the only carrier to not cap/throttle 4g.
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Ah so much misinformation!

Your URL is for aircards, NOT smartphones. They are two totally different things.

After May 15th ONLY tethering will no longer be free or unlimited on the Thunderbolt (unless rooted of course). Smartphone data itself will still be unlimited. I already tossed the mobile hotspot software. Don't need it. Don't care.
 
Vermillion said:
Ah so much misinformation!

Your URL is for aircards, NOT smartphones. They are two totally different things.

After May 15th ONLY tethering will no longer be free or unlimited on the Thunderbolt (unless rooted of course). Smartphone data itself will still be unlimited. I already tossed the mobile hotspot software. Don't need it. Don't care.
Click to expand...

Is 4g limited to smartphones only? No. This is a thread on 4g not only smartphones. If you read what I posted I said for PCS pretty clearly. And I stated pretty clearly that it is listed as unlimited for smartphones. (Did you even read what I posted?) And if they are getting ready to cap tethering who says they aren't going to throttle smartphones after a certain limit.
 
I was coming into this thread to ask if he was one of "those" iPhone people. Question answered lol. 4G isn't a big deal because he doesn't have it and it's as simple as that. The rabbid Apple supporters do that all the time. The moment it comes out in the next iPhone you won't be able to shut him up about it.

4G is a big deal and there are plenty of apps that will use it. Anything that hooks up to the internet will benefit from it and seeing as how that's the big selling point of a smart phone it's kind of a game changer.
 
munkle said:
Is 4g limited to smartphones only? No. This is a thread on 4g not only smartphones. If you read what I posted I said for PCS pretty clearly. And I stated pretty clearly that it is listed as unlimited for smartphones. (Did you even read what I posted?) And if they are getting ready to cap tethering who says they aren't going to throttle smartphones after a certain limit.
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You are correct. My fault. I mis-read what you wrote and the OP is specifically talking about smartphones. Thus why they mention the iPhone 5.

We already know the top 5% of Verizon users are going to get throttled in some way. That's old news. Bottom line is smartphone data using 4G is unlimited no matter what.
 
FerraraZ said:
He stated that there is not one app that could use it and questioned me to show him one app thats held back by using 3G data. I'm inclined to think he's just telling himself this as an Apple fanboy because the iPhone 5 isnt coming out this summer and falling behind with 4G standard.

Is he right in that "phones havent caught up to the need for high speed internet"?
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That question is like saying desktops haven't caught up to the need for high speed internet. It all depends on the user and the hardware to support it.

I'm on T-Mobile and my 3G speeds are just as fast as Sprint's 4G speeds most of the time. I think Sprint's 4G is a joke, but Verizon's LTE 4G probably won't be. As for At&t, they have an identity crisis on what to name their data network.
 
Sprint's Wimax is a joke in the sense that the building penetration and battery life is god awful. When they switch ti LTE in a year, things will be a LOT different. 800Mhz vs 2500Mhz being the biggest difference.

Verizon's data IS actually softcapped, just like T-Mobile's. Once you hit 5GB, you're throttled to 2G speeds.

That being said, when I left my job at AT&T I started up an account at T-Mobile, and while their service isn't perfect, this is definitely the fastest speeds outside of Verizon's (almost completely un-utilized) LTE service. We'll see if this changes once more and more people get on Verizon's LTE network because from all analyst's accounts, their spectrum and potential to handle a ton of customers will be limited. But yeah, I'm getting 10mb/s on T-Mobile's Faux-G, best I ever got on Sprint' was 6mb/s, and AT&T's was around 3-4.
 
I regularly pull 2-4mbit up and down on T-Mobile's 3G network in my area. I don't see the big deal about 4G...
 
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Vermillion said:
A smartphone is a device to allow you to stay connected when you're not near your desktop.
Click to expand...

My phone came with a built in tethering application and the T-Mobile corporate store I bought the phone from stated that since they included the application, you can freely use it. Been tethering like MAD ever since (use it with my laptop so I do not have to get slammed by corporate web policy use rules if I connect to the guest network)

In good 3G coverage areas I can see in excess of 600Kbyte/sec downloads on my HD2 when connected to my PC.....
 
Soon after I got my Evo (my first smartphone), I asked a guy at one of those Sprint mall kiosks about wireless tethering. He told me to root my phone, and gave me some indirect hints about how to do it :p

I still haven't bothered setting up the wireless tethering though. For almost everything, I prefer using my phone over my laptop.

As far as Sprint's Wimax goes, it's great where I can get it. I've gotten >10mbps on occasion, but it was usually ~5-8mbps. I can't get it at my house, and it is hit or miss in the area I work. Since switching between 3g and 4g causes calls and data connections to be dropped, I only use it if I am either in an area with good coverage, or not moving. The biggest thing I notice with it is that there is less of a delay between my pandora songs.
 
My reason for thinking 4G isn't really needed. 3G in Lake County (NW burbs of Chicago area) with my Nexus S:

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I'm never going to download anything on my phone that will need more speed than that. Even tethered (not that I have a laptop anymore), that's pretty quick for anything I can think of.
 
For smartphone usage there will be little perceivable change from 3G to 4G for most users. There is a massive difference in EDGE to 3G.

It is a bit like the whole VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray transition. To some people 4G/Blu-Ray is the second coming of Jesus, to most it is a nice-to-have.
 
My 3G when I'm in range of an HSPA+ tower scoots pretty damn good. It's more noticeable when loading Youtube apps or really large pages. I'd be happy with that all the time on my phone. Tethering is another story, the faster the better there.
 
Yup 4g is fast. Too bad once you enable it your battery will go from full to dead in under an hour. IMO its not a big deal until the hardware can actually use it.
 
Disposed said:
Yup 4g is fast. Too bad once you enable it your battery will go from full to dead in under an hour. IMO its not a big deal until the hardware can actually use it.
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I've heard of some ridiculous exaggerations before, but that one is beyond acceptable. That's basically saying 4g is unreasonably power hungry and nearly useless.
 
SamuraiInBlack said:
I've heard of some ridiculous exaggerations before, but that one is beyond acceptable. That's basically saying 4g is unreasonably power hungry and nearly useless.
Click to expand...

Its an obvious exaggeration but the point holds true. Its IS unreasonably power hungry. Still useful just way to power hungry.
 
Best bet on anything 4g where I live will be when 6g is starting to be rolled out. So no, 4G is not currently on my hot list.

;=]

Tark
 
The issue with having so much speed on cells is that cell data is WAY too over priced and is based on usage. A couple hours of heavy web surfing on a 4G device is going to land you into a bill that will cost thousands of dollars. I guess it's not a huge issue with a cell, because who actually spends tons of time streaming video on a small screen, but it's an issue when you are using one of those internet stick or other device that can let you use your PC to surf through the cell network. Some people have no idea that it's costing them per MB and they have all these torrents and stuff going on.

I've heard some pretty bad stories of people using something called a turbo hub. Basically it's like a modem, but uses the cell network. $50,000+ bills are not unheard of.

The speeds are better then cable/DSL so people are like "woah this is so awesome" not realizing the real cost.
 
In my opinion, 4g is great to a point. Unless you are tethering, I do not see a real need for anything above 5 mb/s of actual performance. Even youtube HD is not that high of a resolution to require more speed. Netflix can stream movies and shows in medium/high/x-high HD quality with under 2 mb/s actual speed to my ps3. Most of the time the delays on these video streaming sites are from their servers and not your connection.

So no 4G isn't a must have yet, but it is very nice if you watch streaming movies or regularly have to download large files. Tethering will always prefer the fastest connection possible but 5-8 mb/s of actual speed is faster than most people have in their homes. I am not sure if the iphone 5 will have 4G for one main reason; battery life. Apple prides themselves on their battery life in the ip4. Maybe they will find a way to make it more efficient or give up on that crusade, who knows.
 
When travelling I've never been in a situation where I said "Damn, this 3G is really holding me back!" With a good 3G connection, all of the searching, navigation, and web browser works without me considering how slow it is.

At my house and various other locations, I just use WiFi. The only real advantage I could see with 4G would be running a hotspot that my laptop could access.
 
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